Reality Bytes
by Hikari Hellspawn
Summary: zOMG, Gaia's MMO, is the game of choice for Kira Daile and her friends. More than a few nights they've spent romping around the world, getting into trouble and idly wondering "what if this was real". One day during school, they get their answer, and it's not the fun-and-games they had hoped.
1. Animated

**So, a bit of a backstory to this fanfic; I had the first dozen chapters written. Unfortunately, I lost them.** _ **All**_ **of them. So I'm stuck rewriting the whole thing, which may or may not be a bad thing, but it's frustrating nonetheless.**

 **This is an idea that was first born back when I was in high school, back when Gaia still had zOMG running. I had the files hanging around on my computer for years, fiddling with them off-and-on. I'd intended on putting it up on here for a while, but somewhere along the lines, between switching computers and keeping everything backed up on flash drives, I managed to lose** _ **everything**_ **I'd written. Which royally irks me. And I haven't been able to find them.**

 **So, yeah, the story's getting a rewrite. Some of the usernames in this story are** _ **actual**_ **usernames on Gaia, used with their owners' permission. I make no claim to anything mentioned in this fanfic, I'm only playing in the world and stirring up trouble for fun.**

 **Music for this chapter: "Mayhem"-Halestorm**

* * *

 **1**

 **Animated**

 **K** ira Daile was taking notes in NJROTC when she heard the first knocks on the window.

The classroom was on the second floor, so it wouldn't have been the first time a bird flew into the window; once, after Friday PT, one of the boys was sticking his head out a window to try to cool off, and ended up with a pigeon in his face. The side-effect had been that the bird had then gotten into the classroom.

Looking back, it was funny. When it happened, not so much.

But this time it wasn't a bird. It was…something scrabbling at the glass, as if it were trying to get in.

Kira glanced away from the screen as one of her classmates asked a question to see what was making the scrabbling sound. Sure enough, it wasn't a bird. It was….

Well, Kira wasn't sure _what_ it was.

At first glance, it looked to Kira like one of the monsters from zOMG; a giant, mechanical mosquito—an Alarmskeeter, in the game. But that was a _game_ , an MMO she and her friends traipsed around in, causing all sorts of destruction.

 _Maybe it's someone playing around with remote-controlled stuff? Laurenciel likes fiddling with drones and RC stuff…._ Kira watched the skeeter crawl over the glass, and frowned when it was joined by another.

 _Is someone pulling a prank?_

Kira turned her attention back to the lesson, doodling in her notebook almost as much as she took notes. The skeeter kept on ticking at the glass.

 _ **XXX**_

 **R** osalyn Tourniquet wished Kira was there. Or Laurenciel. Both of them could wrap their heads around math a _lot_ better than her.

So, when the teacher called on her to ask what came next in the algebra problem, her brain was all tied up in knots and she had no idea what to say.

Rosalyn sunk back in her chair as the rest of the class snickered around her. Despite her classroom performance being atrocious, her grades were actually decent; she credited _that_ to being friends with a couple of math whizzes. When it came to notes, forget it. Tests were nearly as bad. It was her homework scores that were keeping her afloat.

 _I'm going to track down Kira after class and follow her home. She'll be able to make sense of this crap and help me with homework. Dammit,_ _why_ _couldn't ROTC be next hour? Why did she have to go for honors algebra? Why not regular?_ Kira Daile's logic confused Rosalyn; she often announced that she _hated_ math, yet she insisted on taking honors math courses.

Well, at least next hour was English. She and Kira and Marcia all shared the class, and probably the coolest teacher in the school. With any luck, she could get an explanation that didn't sound like gibberish.

Rosalyn plunked her head down onto her folded arms. No sense in trying to make sense of it now; it'd just make her headache worse.

"Ewww! Something smells like pee!"

Rosalyn groaned. Really? _Really?_ The dumb jokes start _now?_

 _Gods, help me._

"Tamisha, you're imagining it."

"No, I'm not! Something outside smells like someone took a piss!"

 _Well, it wouldn't be the first time someone in this school got high and forgot what the bathroom was for. Eugh…I'm never using that stairwell again._

"EEEEE! Mr. Crawford! There's pee under the door!"

The shriek made Rosalyn lift her head. She crinkled her nose; much to her displeasure, her classmate was right, it smelled like _pee._

 _Aw, man. Who's high on what now?_

Mr. Crawford sighed and put the marker down, shaking his head. "Stay in your seats, I'll deal with it." He said, exasperated. He'd call for security, but who knows if one of the security guards would get there. The teacher opened the door, saying, "Okay, kids, prank's over. You're going to the offiAAGGGH!"

He'd opened the door to a cluster of…living plungers. With bubbles of yellow stuff—pee, eugh—on the bottoms. The smell of urine hit Rosalyn's nose full-force, and she gagged; it stunk worse than the litter box last week, when her sister had been _supposed_ to take care of it. As bad as it smelled, the teacher had it worse; the moment he'd opened the door, the plungers attacked, soon leaving his face a bloody wreck. And then they turned their attack on the classroom.

Predictably, her classmates screamed.

Rosalyn backed herself up against a wall, her binder clutched in her hands like a shield. _Wait, hang on…Peelungers! They look like Peelungers!_ She didn't play zOMG much—Kira and Laurenciel and Ash were more into it—but she'd run around in the game a couple times, mostly when one of her friends were having trouble with a quest.

Despite the fact that these were _real people_ getting attacked by what was supposed to be a bunch of very virtual monsters, Rosalyn groaned.

 _Of everything that could attack, why_ _plungers_ _? Why did it have to be_ _ **plungers**_ _?!_

Beside her, glass broke. Rosalyn looked. _Oh, son of a—_

 _ **XXX**_

 **—** _ **B** ITCH!_

Laurenciel swore as the latest baseball bat shattered. He'd gone through three already, since the oversized, metal mosquitoes had started attacking. PE was outside today, and so far it was turning out to be a bad idea. Normally, softball day wasn't _so_ bad; they got to be outside, Laurenciel got to hit things (mainly, the ball), get some fresh air, and sometimes get a laugh at of some of his _dumber_ classmates.

Today was not one of those days.

Some of said classmates were hiding—or trying to. Others were running around screaming as they were being chased by the giant metal mosquitoes. Some of the smarter ones were trying to get inside, sometimes helping a classmate who'd been injured by one of the skeeters. A few were on the ground and unmoving…worryingly so. And even fewer were attempting to fight off the flying, evil, metal insects with baseball bats and rocks.

It wasn't going well.

With most of his class erring on the screamy side of clueless, Laurenciel was not about to mention what the attackers reminded him _way_ too much of; Alarmskeeters from zOMG. There'd been a story on the news a couple nights ago about these things attacking, and the cops had been acting as if they were very cruel pranks being played by someone with the bad combination of imagination, twisted sense of humor, and technological know-how.

Now that he was facing off against so many skeeters himself, he wasn't believing the cops on the news anymore.

He grabbed another baseball bat and swung it at an Alarmskeeter going for a running, screaming girl. The bat hit the skeeter with a loud _CLANG,_ bringing the monster's attention from the girl to him.

Several other Alarmskeeters were drawn by the sound. _Crap. Should've thought that through a little better._

Well…thinking stuff through was one of Rosalyn's talents. Apparently after four years, she hadn't rubbed off on him as much as he thought.

The skeeters hovered in front of him for several moments, apparently eyeing him as if he were a meal. Instinctively he held his breath, hoping that the fact that they weren't attacking him meant they weren't _going_ to attack.

Two more joined the hovering group. Laurenciel's eyes flicked from one skeeter to the next. Half a dozen… _Maybe they're not as trigger-happy as in the game?_

Suddenly, all six of them let out a mechanical screech and rushed him. _Apparently, not._ Laurenciel yelled and swung wildly at the skeeters as they attacked, but the giant metal bugs were faster and deadlier than him. The yelling turned to screaming that was a mix of anger and pain, and maybe a little bit of fear.

 _Crap, crap crap crap. I hope they aren't in the school, I hope_ _someone_ _knows what's going on!_ He felt his bat connect several times, but it wasn't appearing to do anything. At the same time, his arms and face were scored with cuts and gashes; the Alarmskeeters' natural weapons were a lot more effective on him than his bat was on _them._

The thought he'd been trying to ignore bubbled to the surface; _I'm gonna die._

Laurenciel barely dodged one of the skeeters making a jab for his stomach; he got a gash for his trouble. Behind him, he felt heat, and smelled something burning.

"Hey, kid! Get outta the way, unless you wanna be fried along with these things!"

Laurenciel ducked, throwing himself out of the way. Right after him came a fireball that engulfed the attacking Alarmskeeters. Wiping blood from a gash over his eye, he looked behind him to the source of the ball of fiery death.

The guy was holding a ball of fire in one hand, grinning. His hair was blonde, eyes brown, and was wearing a flame-patterned shirt and cargo pants. The mini fireball he was holding was being conjured by one of the rings on his fingers. "You're lookin' a little wore for wear, bud. Tell me; how seriously do you want to fight these things?"

 _ **XXX**_

Kira clutched rifle shape in her hands like it was a staff. The glass from the windows lay in pieces on the floor, and the desks that hadn't been bent and broken in the surprise attack were being used as a barricade between the teenagers and the Alarmskeeters. She heard screaming from outside; it wasn't a good sign. There were more monsters in the halls—Kira didn't know what else was in the school, but apparently it was as friendly as the Alarmskeeters in the ROTC classroom.

To her classmates' credit, they were surprisingly composed. Commander had gotten the initial panic under control and gotten the kids protected and the door barricaded. The classroom's size meant that only a few skeeters could be in there at a time, and so far two were in pieces on the floor. For the first time Kira was very glad the rifle shapes weighed almost fifteen pounds.

She was one of the half dozen students standing as defense with the teacher. The room was a mess; desks were strewn everywhere, glass crunched underfoot, and the projector was in bits. The screen was shredded, and Kira's arm was bleeding. The Alarmskeeters in zOMG were violent, but these real-life versions were giving her a whole new opinion of them.

Suddenly, Gaia's MMO didn't look as fun as it had been last night.

"How's that 911 call doing?!"

"Uhh, they've got calls coming in all over town. Apparently these things are everywhere!"

The teacher looked like he wanted to scream. "Tell them to get their backsides in gear! The high school is _being attacked!_ If the police don't think that's a priority, they've got problems!"

Kira repressed a snort. She wasn't entirely sure if the police department didn't have a few potheads on the force….

Her train of thought was interrupted by the sound of cracking wood. "Scheiss…." She hissed before she could catch herself.

"Travis, Daile, Williams, all of you, get to the desks; the Senior Chief and I are going to draw their attention. I want you to get the rest of the class out of here and to safety. When I say run, _start running._ "

Kira didn't want to argue that tone. She backed up as the wood of the door started to splinter. She was gripping the rifle shape in her hand so tight her knuckles were turning white. The NSIs were taking on the Alarmskeeters with military effectiveness, but it was taking too long to destroy even just one of them.

And she could hear the buzzing of who knew how many more outside.

The door gave way with a loud crack and a crash; the classroom was flooded with skeeters and gross little monsters Kira recognized as Peelungers. Next to her, she heard Travis let out a squeak of fear; these… _Animated_ seemed to be endless.

The Peelungers joined the Alarmskeeters in attacking the classroom. Barely audible in the din she heard Commander yell _"Move!"_ and Kira fell into a makeshift formation with her fellow upperclassmen, around the other cadets, and _ran._

The hallway was chaos. Within seconds of exiting the room Kira and her classmates were set upon by skeeters and plungers, and she wished more than ever she'd been able to afford continuing aikido. They moved slowly, beating away the Animated as they made for a stairwell. If they could get to it, secure it, then hopefully….

 _"All of you get down!"_

Kira whirled as a student—no, a young man, only a few yeas older than Kira, about college-age—drew a pair of guns out of _thin air._ Her eyes widened as she saw what he meant to do, and screamed for her classmate to duck. She didn't wait to see if they had, just hit the deck.

A breath later she heard gunfire and metallic shrieks and squelches as the Alarmskeeters and Peelungers were caught in the spray. The plungers popped and fell to pieces, and the skeeters fell to the ground as smoking hunks of bullethole-ridden metal. She heard a ringing sound nearby and felt a wave of cool wash over her; at the same time, the cuts on her hands and arms glowed softly aqua and healed.

The young man trotted over to them and started helping students up, making sure they were okay. "You need to leave. All of you are in danger; get to safety, _don't_ go outside. It'll be worse out there."

"What's happening?" That was Williams.

"I wish I could explain. Just…find a bathroom, another classroom, _someplace_ without the Animated and barricade yourselves there. I promise, help is coming, just get out of here!"

"What's the Animated?" Reinard this time.

The man looked like he wanted to punch something. "Just—go! Get OUT OF HERE!"

"The cops are—"

"Fighting these off about as effectively as they can, which isn't that well. They won't be here for a while, which is why I'm here." He rolled his eyes. "Damn…before I do this, sorry in advance." He raised his hand and one of the rings on his hand activated, and a wave of electricity washed through the floor, stunning Kira's classmates.

Kira whirled on the man. "What. The. _Hells._ Did you do?!"

The man looked as surprised as she felt. "That didn't knock you unconscious?"

Kira spread her hands. "No shit, Sherlock." She snapped. "Now, what did you do to my classmates?!"

The man ran a hand through his hair. It was trimmed short and dark brown. He wore black-rimmed glasses, was clean-shaven, and had pale blue eyes. He was wearing a white dress shirt tucked into black jeans; what Kira categorized as "office shoes"; a silver wristwatch, and had a black messenger bag slung over one shoulder. And on each of his fingers was a ring.

"Damn…that ring was supposed to stun anyone—apart from the user, of course—in its activation radius and ward Animated away. You should be out cold with the rest of your classmates." He said, eyeing her. "By the way, you can put down the gun, I'm not going to hurt you."

Kira's grip tightened. "Yeah…I think I'll keep it, if you don't mind. You just knocked out a bunch of people around me." She said. "I guess what comes next is one of those 'I did that for their protection' speels?"

"More or less," The man sighed. "Okay, so since you're not going to put down the bludgeon, let's try introductions. I'm Maxwell. I'm what's called a Shard."

Kira peered at the man. "…Kira." She looked him over. He looked like a textbook nerd, apart from the rings on his fingers. "What's a Shard?"

Maxwell let out a breath. His clothes looked familiar, but Kira couldn't quite place from where. Granted, the sort of outfit he was wearing wasn't exactly uncommon. "A Shard is…well, a piece of Gaia—"

Kira's eye twitched. "The website?"

"Yes. Let me finish." He held up a hand. "A Shard is…well, a part of Gaia, taken a physical form." He held his arms out to his sides. "It's hard to explain. Kind of like if you were trying to explain to someone from another planet what a human was."

"You look human."

Maxwell looked to the ceiling. "Goddamn it, Gambino, why did you have to drop me near one of the inquisitive ones? Why couldn't it have been someone screaming their head off?"

"Oy! I'm _right here!"_ Kira snapped. "This isn't a dream, right? I didn't play too much zOMG before bed and I'm now dreaming I'm in the game?"

Maxwell shook his head as he looked back to her. "You play the MMO, then." He said. He nodded to the chaos around them. "So you know what the Animated are." A muscle worked in his jaw for a moment before he continued. "What's your username on Gaia?"

Kira frowned. The Animated seemed to be ignoring them—for now, at least. From set of the man's stance, he was familiar with fighting the Animated; he was relaxed, but balanced in such a way that Kira didn't doubt that he could snap into action at a moment's notice. He'd mentioned Gambino; had he meant Johnny Gambino, the NPC? Was he a 'Shard' too?

"Shadows10000."

Recognition lit in Maxwell's eyes. "I've met you." He said. "Do you remember the tutorial in zOMG?"

It clicked in Kira's head. "You're that NPC!" She said. "The guy on the subway!"

Maxwell nodded. "The guy you get your first rings from." He opened his bag and pulled out a small box and tossed it to her. "I guess it's fitting that I'm the one to give you that, then." He held up his hand and twiddled one of the fingers. "This ring _should_ have knocked you out, but I'll bet your familiarity with Gaia is what kept you conscious. Edmund and Johnny warned us that might happen."

Kira released the rifle shape with one hand to catch the box. It was black, and fit comfortably in the palm of her hand. The G-Corp insignia was on the lid. "What's this?"

"Your Rings." Maxwell said. "Before we—me and a group of other Shards—were sent here, Johnny and Edmund warned us that Stunner—that ring I used to knock out your classmates—might not work on everybody. Specifically, that the people who play zOMG on a regular basis may not be affected. We were given those, in case we ran into any of you guys."

"So you're saying the fact that I play zOMG is why I'm immune to Stunner." Kira said. "Can't you guys just fight the Animated yourselves?"

Maxwell shrugged. "There's not enough of us." He explained. "It takes a lot of energy to bring one of us Shards into being here. Believe it or not, the Internet is a universe all its own." He pointed to the box Kira held in her hand. "Every Gaian who plays zOMG has one of those assigned to them. It contains a PDA and all the rings they have in the game. We Shards were sent here with the primary purpose of tracking down any zOMG players and get their Rings to them, and teach them how to fight in the real world."

Kira let the hand still holding the rifle shape fall, lowering the rifle to order arms. "If we already know how to play zOMG, why do you need to teach us how to fight?"

Maxwell glanced to the side as several Alarmskeeters screeched. "The Animated in the real world are a lot more dangerous than online." He said. "In the game, if you're killed you get sent to the Null Chamber to recover hit points, before heading back out. If you're killed here, there's no such safeguard." Another screech, closer this time. "Damn…the effect will be wearing off soon." He stepped towards her and put a hand on her shoulder. "This time the fight's real. If you die, you won't respawn. I'm going to activate Stunner again to try and buy your classmates some more time before heading back into the fight, but I'll ask you this first; are you willing to fight?"

Kira looked from the box in her hand to Maxwell. The look in his eyes was steady; hard, but not uncaring. And at the same time, she saw the request for help.

Until now she'd only acted stuff like this out with her friends in LARP. That had been imaginary. A world that was a helluva lot better than this one, one where Kira and her friends weren't oddballs, but ballsy adventurers.

But this wasn't LARP. This wasn't a game. This was real, and if she was killed she was really dead.

Goosebumps ran up Kira's arms. They weren't from fear. She shot Maxwell a shit-eating grin.

"Hell yes."

* * *

 **As I said before, some of the usernames that pop up in here will belong to real people on Gaia, and I've gotten the Gaians' permission to use them. So far none of those have shown up so far, but when they do here is where I'll put the little thanks for letting me borrow their username for the fic ^^.**

 **I hope you all are going to enjoy this romp. As always, read, rate, review and subscribe if you enjoy it! I'll try and have at least one chapter of Reality Bytes every other month. A bit of a longer wait, but one that I hope will pay off!**

 **~Hikari Hellion**


	2. Into the Fire

**No, your eyes are not deceiving you; I have indeed changed my username a little bit. Don't worry; I'm still the same, lovely, charming (hah) Hikari-just with a shiny new last name ^^.**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own anything of Gaia's. Except maybe my username, which you'll see in this fic. All the others are made up.**

* * *

 **2**

 **Into the Fire**

 **"H** ell _yes._ "

A smiled quirked up the corner of Maxwell's mouth. "Then just slip those rings onto your fingers. Your PDA will do the rest." He activated Stunner again. "Good luck."

He set off at a run, and Kira faced the Animated in the hall alone. She leaned the rifle shape up against the wall and opened the box in her hand. Sure enough, it contained eight loose rings, a pouch with several more, a PDA…and a few other things.

Kira pulled out the PDA and the loose rings. She slipped the PDA into her pocket and slid each of the eight rings—Guns Guns Guns, Hot Foot, Bump, Fire Rain, Rock Armor, Keen Eye, Divinity, and Meat—onto a finger. She held out her hand and thought about attacking the Animated with Hot Foot.

Nothing happened.

Kira swore. "Da fuck?" She gave the rings on her hands a dirty look. "You're no use!"

The PDA in her pocket beeped. She pulled it out and saw an alert; "Activate Rings". It was giving her a tutorial on how to activate her rings.

She glanced up. The Alarmskeeters had her in their sights and were coming for her. She tapped the alert on her PDA.

The Rings on her fingers each flashed with neon purple light, which washed over her hands, up her arms, and over the rest of her body. Where the purple light faded, her form changed; skin darkening to a dark, gray-blue; a very familiar jacket replaced her hoodie, her jeans and sneakers morphed into black Goth pants and combat boots, and her hair changed to red.

The change took only a few moments. Kira blinked as words appeared in her vision:

 _Username: Shadows10000._

 _Status: Online._

 _Ring status: Charged._

 _Charge level: 6.8_

 _Null Connection: Steady._

 _It's a HUD._ Kira blinked, and the notations disappeared. Text drifted at the edge of her vision, presumably some other sort of information. She turned to the Alarmskeeters coming her way, and a red crosshair flickered on each. Accompanying it was another line of text:

 _Targets Acquired._

Kira smiled. This was as easy as thinking.

She charged out of the protective circle, yelling a battle cry, activating her Rings. Her vision flared purple, rocks encased her arms for a moment, and guns appeared out of the air in her hands. The Alarmskeeters gravitated towards her.

 _"Eat lead!"_

 _ **XXX**_

 _ **"F** uck off!"_ Rosalyn smacked at the skeeter. As she backpedaled from the mechanical nightmare, she slipped in a puddle of former Peelunger. Unceremoniously she landed on her butt in said puddle of pee.

Fan-flipping-tastic.

"Hey! Catch!"

Rosalyn almost missed the small black box tossed her way. She caught it right before it made contact with her nose. "Da hell?"

The girl who'd thrown her the box was a dark elf with red hair, yellow eyes, and wearing black skinny jeans, heeled boots, tight shirt, and a sleeveless leather jacket.

And a ring on each finger.

"Thirteenth-Dragoon, right?" The girl asked.

Rosalyn recognized her Gaia username. "Who're you?"

"Amria Fasaka, dark elf Shard." The girl said. "That box has your PDA and Rings from zOMG. Just slip on the rings and activate them on your PDA; you do the rest."

"Wait!" But the dark elf was gone as quickly as she'd come, and Rosalyn was again alone in the classroom. Her classmates and teacher had already vacated the room, and Rosalyn had been the only one to stay and fight off the Peelungers and Alarmskeeters.

It wasn't going well.

She looked to the box in her hand as she pulled herself up. She backed away from the window, no knowing when the next skeeter would come crashing through. It fit nicely into her palm, and the G-Corp insignia was emblazoned on the top. She pulled off the lid and pulled out the rings inside and slid them onto her fingers.

Then, tapped the prompt on the PDA. Neon purple washed from the Rings over her, and her clothes changed from her hoodie, t-shirt and jeans to a black turtleneck, black skirt, purple leggings, black Mary Janes, and a purple newsboy cap.

 _Username: Thirteenth-Dragoon._

 _Status: Online._

 _Ring status: Charged._

 _Charge level: 6.0_

 _Null Connection: Steady._

Rosalyn yelped and blinked rapidly several times. The text went away, only to be replaced as several new Alarmskeeters came through the broken windows.

 _Targets Acquired._

"Shut _up_ goddamn it!" She threw out her arm and one of her Rings glowed neon purple and katanas flickered into existence and sliced into the skeeters. They fell to pieces on the ground.

Rosalyn looked at her hand. Seven rings; Mantis, Fire Rain, Heavy Water Balloon, and Dervish on her right, and Fleet Feet, Divinity, and Healing Halo on her left. She glanced to the window, and figured she'd better get out of the classroom and find others who were fighting.

She activated Fleet and ran down the hall. Laurenciel had PE this hour…hadn't he said today was softball day at breakfast?

 _ **XXX**_

 **T** he boy in question torched several very obnoxious, very _corny_ lawn gnomes as they battered away at the fence. Laurenciel had several long cuts over his arms and torso and he could feel the bruises forming under the leather of his coat; he couldn't see the black-and-blue marks yet, but he knew they'd be there in the morning.

As well as the accompanying pain.

But for now, his whole appearance had changed; his skin was dark, his hair forest-green, and he was wearing a pair of chained pants, sneakers, a blue flame-patterned top, and a long, leather coat. His avatar, as it appeared currently.

Online, he thought it looked badass. In real life…he looked like a dork.

A fresh wave of the irritating gnomes started back on the fence, joined by some yard flamingo backup and a weird shrub…monster…thing. His classmates had run for cover; they'd been the smart ones.

Laurenciel wasn't. So here he was, getting his skinny, dorky ass kicked.

By _lawn gnomes._ Fucking _**lawn gnomes.**_ Of all the undignified ways to go, death by corny porcelain lawn gnomes topped the list.

Okay, maybe not the number one spot; that had to go to death by toilet seat. But death my lawn gnome came in at a very close second.

Laurenciel heard the sound of rending metal behind him. He went from smirking at the sound of dying lawn ornaments—it sounded less…breaking-glass-y than he'd thought—to a cold sweat.

That was not a good sound.

That was a _very_ not good sound.

He turned. He had _something_ , at least, to take these things on with. He'd been doing pretty well at taking down the living lawn ornaments; whatever that was could be taken on as easily, right?

When he saw what had torn through the chain-link fence, Laurenciel wished he hadn't looked.

 _Oh, nope. Nope. No way. I am not dealing with that._

Sawblades. With eyes. Flaming, bright red eyes. And pissed; very, very pissed.

 _So it's either death by lawn gnome or death by demon buzz saws. Neither of which are great choices._

Laurenciel looked around. Unless he wanted to go running into the school—which was probably infested with _more_ of these demented things—and therefore draw the attacking lawn ornaments, shrubbery, and sharpened metal into a building with panicky classmates, he didn't have many options. Hell, he didn't have _any_ options.

He felt the PDA buzz in his pants pocket, where he'd dropped it after he activated it. A moment later, an alert flashed in the corner of his vision.

 _Friends nearby: Thirteenth-Dragoon, Spacer3234. Join Crew?_

Laurenciel hissed in frustration and blinked the alert away. He dove to the side as the shrubbery decided to take advantage of his distraction, attacking him. He hissed as the barbed vine slashed through his pants and into his leg, and heard it tear a long rip in his coat. Shortly followed by shrieking as it blundered into the demonic buzz saws and was summarily torn to mulch.

Which he would've been if he hadn't started _running._

 _"Oh fuck off!"_ he screamed, activating Hot Foot, setting several gnomes and saws on fire. Not enough; hell, if anything, all he did was piss off the rest of them even more. _Dammit,_ he thought as he sprinted for the football field, _I wish I hadn't salvaged Fleet Feet. Kira_ _said_ _it was useful, but I didn't think it'd be in such a literal sense._

 _"Hey Laurey! Duck!"_

Opting _not_ to hiss at Rosalyn's nickname for him, Laurenciel did as she said. Or, ordered, anyway. He felt the hair on the back of his neck move as the swords from Mantis flickered into existence and slashed over his head, cutting into lawn gnomes, plastic flamingos, and demon buzz saws.

As the sounds of Rosalyn's rage and metal against metal raged, he felt warmth surge through him, accompanied by the crawling itchiness of closing wounds. Relatively sure now that he wouldn't be beheaded via katana, he rolled to his feet….

And came face-to-face with a cat.

In a space suit.

What.

Laurenciel blinked. "Um. I'm gonna go out on a limb and guess Riley?"

The cat smiled. "You'd be guessing right." She said. "I'm sending you an invite to the Crew Roz started. I'm guessing you haven't seen Kira or Marcia?"

Laurenciel shook his head as the alert popped up in his vision. Scowling, he dismissed it and accepted the invite on his PDA. Rosalyn glanced back to the two. "Oi! Laurey! A little _help_ would be nice!"

"Always diplomatic," Laurenciel grunted, activating Hot Foot again and turning several more Animated into ash. He was in the middle of activating Hack when arrows _thunked_ into the last of the gnomes on one side, and ninja stars peppered the saws on the other. "What the—?"

Two figures strode up to the group. "Yo." One of them—a dorky-looking vampire whose blue hair looked suspiciously like Vash the Stampede's—and a blonde with (literally) white skin wearing a biker jacket and skinny jeans started towards them. "We were starting to get worried that there weren't any Gaians nearby."

"Do you know what's happening?" Riley asked.

The duo exchanged looks. "…Mostly." The white-skinned blonde replied. "But first, are there any other Gaians you guys know of running around? People who've played the MMO?"

"Yeah," Rosalyn said before Laurenciel could reply. "Kira and Marcia—Shadows10000 and Elle Elf—are in the high school somewhere, still. Viv's probably still home with the flu…."

The vampire was nodding and had his eyes unfocused. "I think I've found them. They're inside, near the main entrance on the other side of the school." He said. "And one of them's using a lot of fire."

"Kira." The three deadpanned. If there was anyone who could be counted on to go for as much overkill as possible, it was Kira Daile. Laurenciel hoped she wouldn't burn down the school—well, not _entirely_ , at least.

The duo exchanged another look. "You kids, get home. Stay there, barricade the doors, and don't come out until things have died down." The blonde said. "It's dangerous out here. Really dangerous. And you guys only have mid-level Charge Levels—"

"Hell no." Rosalyn interrupted. She crossed her arms, scowling. "And in case you didn't hear it the first time, hell _fucking_ no. Our friends are on the other side of the school? Well, then that's where we're headed."

The vampire raised an eyebrow. "You're sure?"

"Yes," Laurenciel took a spot next to Rosalyn, crossing his arms as well. On his other side, he felt Riley take up a similar pose. "And I wouldn't advise trying to stop Rosalyn; she tends to be about as destructive as a raging bull when she decides to do something. You'll probably end up with a few broken noses for your trouble."

Rosalyn glared at him. He responded with a big, wide grin.

The vampire shook his head as the blonde let out a loud sigh. "All right then, fine. We'll add you three to our Crew and let you tag along. Just let us take on the stronger stuff; you won't do anyone any good if you get yourselves killed."

The three nodded as two more names flickered onto the Crew list, before fading out of Laurenciel's field of vision. Then, it was back into the school, to track down the pyromaniac and the derp.

 _ **XXX**_

 **B** y the time they'd regrouped and the Animated dispersed, Kira was _exhausted_. She was only too glad to dismiss her avatar and collapse into Roz's couch, more tired than she thought was possible. In the distance, she heard sirens, no doubt the police and ambulances, finally able to get to the school. The Cadet could have cared less; all she wanted to do was sleep.

That, and know _what the hell was going on._

"Good news; there doesn't seem to have been any fatalities. A lot of injuries though." A redheaded dark elf—Amria, was what she'd introduced herself as—said, returning to the living room. She sank down against the couch, next to Kira. "And a lot of destruction. Not as bad as it could've been, though. Wouldn't be surprised if there were more Shards come through that've already 'ported back."

"Okay, explain." Kira said, wincing as she flexed her neck. She was pretty sure she'd pulled every muscle possible in the fighting. "What're Shards, why could we change into our Avatars, and _why the hell are the Animated in the real world?"_

The three…Shards, they called themselves, exchanged a look. "That…is going to take a while to explain." Amria said, slowly. "And I'm not sure if you guys'll believe any of it."

"Honey, after being attacked by bubbles of pee, green mutant hamsters, lawn ornaments, and demonic buzz saws from Hell, I think we're good on the believing part." Rosalyn said. "And frankly right now, I'm too tired to give a shit. You could be talking about purple flying elephants from Mars causing all this and I'd be too exhausted to care."

Kira barked out a laugh. Then groaned as it jostled her ribs—owww. That hurt. _I hope nothing's broken; I can't afford a hospital visit._ She thought. "I'm with Roz on this one." She said. "I'm so tired right now my brain probably won't start processing any of this until tomorrow. At which point I'll probably panic so bad I'll turn into an incoherent puddle of jelly, so you may as well take advantage of the exhaustion-induced calm now."

"Right," the dark elf said with a sigh. "Just don't blame me if you don't believe any of this…."


	3. Aftermath

**Ahh, another month, another chapter. This one's just going to be a ton of explaining and...stuff.**

 **As always, I don't own any of Gaia; I'm just writing this for fun.**

* * *

 _ **Chapter theme: "Wasteland" -Two Steps From Hell**_

 **3**

 **Aftermath**

 **"T** he Animated aren't just monsters in n MMO. For that matter, Gaia is more than just a website. It's all _real_."

They were in Rosalyn's living room, either sprawled on the furniture or sitting on the floor. Marcia was sitting cross-legged on the floor against the couch Kira was sprawled over. Currently, said math wiz was flopped face-down, but Marcia didn't doubt that she was paying attention. She was good at that.

Ordinarily, being at a friend's house in the middle of the school day would've bothered her, but right now it didn't. Probably because the whole _reason_ they were currently gathered in Rosalyn's living room was because of the monsters—the Animated—that had started attacking the high school.

And none of them were in a hurry to head back.

"Them" in this case consisted of herself, Kira Daile, Rosalyn Tourniquet, Laurenciel Hades, Riley Callahan and three Shards. Said "Shards"—they still hadn't gotten around to explaining what Shards _were_ —went by the names Amria Fasaka, Hunter Rhys, and Sahara Li. The one doing the explaining was the red-haired dark elf, Amria. Hunter, a blue-haired vampire was sitting on the arm of the big squishy chair Riley had claimed, sipping at a root beer. Sahara, the white—literally—skinned blonde was sitting cross-legged in the computer chair she'd pulled over. Amria had taken the space on the couch that wasn't taken up by the blob known as Kira.

"Wait." Laurenciel held up a hand. " _How_ real? Like, other universes? Magical worlds?"

Amria shifted. "…sort of." She replied. "Gaia _is_ a world of its own, one that exists within the Internet. It may have started out as _just_ a website, but by now it's more than that. It's a world of its own, with all the same dynamics of this one. You could think of it as the digital universe being a mirror for this one."

Laurenciel shook his head. "Kira, you sure we're not having some communal dream or something? This seems like what your brain would cook up."

"Pretty sure it's not a dream." Kira's reply was muffled by having her face in the pillow.

"How d'you know that?"

"Because if it was then I'm pretty sure I'd have come up with something better than demon buzz saws and evil pee bubbles."

Marcia snickered as Rosalyn made an "ewugh" sounds. Hunter snorted into his root beer. Amria leaned back and crossed her arms, a smile flickering on the dark elf's face before returning to seriousness. "The whole 'digital universe' thing will take longer to explain than we've got right now. The bare basics are that the Animated are more than an MMO. Gaia's real, and while there's similarities between website Gaia and real Gaia, there's more than a few differences between the two. One is that the Animated crisis is a helluva lot worse; there's almost no contact between the towns, and people are dying. Another is the Null."

"The Null?" That was Riley.

Amria nodded. "Null Energy is…odd. It's a form of magical energy, but somehow it exists both in the real world and in the digital. It's how _we_ , the Shards, can exist here. It's also how your Rings have a physical form and why they change your appearance when you activate them. And it's what's created the Animated.

"Long story short, Null Energy usually flows at a pretty regular rate; not too little, not too much. But now, something's gotten it all blocked up and it's started overflowing, and until now that overflow has been limited to Gaia. Something's opened a peephole in that barrier between the real and the digital, and now the Animated are taking form _here._ "

"They're bleeding through."

"That's about it," Hunter confirmed. "You can think of us Shards as…pieces of Gaia. Bits of that world, given a physical form so we can interact with and guide you."

"Or just annoy the piss out of each other." Sahara deadpanned.

"Anyway," Amira shot the other two a look. "The Null overflow is bleeding through to here. Ordinarily you'd think that would even it out on _our_ end, but instead it's exacerbating it. If it's not checked soon, or the hole in reality closed, the overflow will even start creating new Animated _here._ "

Rosalyn groaned. "Fan-fucking-tastic." She banged the back of her head against the couch cushion. "What, exactly, _is_ Null Energy?"

The dark elf leaned back, crossing her arms. "In short? Magic. I may be a digital elf, but I'm still an elf." She shrugged. "Or, something _similar_ to magical energy, anyway. It can be used by mages, but on its own it's kind of…well, toxic. Not a ton of fun to mess with. Using it on its own is risky; you're just as likely to blow yourself to bits as you are to accomplish what you're trying.

"These Rings," she held up her hand, showing one ring on each finger, including the thumb. "Bypass all of that. They're artifacts that Johnny Gambino, Edmund, and Brennivin cooked up. These buggers can harness Null Energy and direct it into a spell-like attack at the Animated, without harming the wearer, as the Null doesn't _technically_ come in contact with the user. Which is really good, because attacks formed from Null Energy seem to be what has the most effect against the Animated."

"And the Animated are…basically, inanimate objects that got pumped full of Null Energy?"

"Pretty much." Amria pushed one of Kira's feet off her lap. "Some are less…I guess you could say _conscious_ than others, but they're all pretty violent. Again, some are nastier than others; for example, fluffs aren't as deadly as Alarmskeeters, and trust me when I say you do _not_ want to meet a Flying Giftbox. They look pretty, but I'm pretty sure they're from Hell."

"Noted…." Marcia looked to Rosalyn, who was shifting uncomfortably. "How is it that this Null stuff exists _in the Internet?_ "

The three Shards exchanged a look, then shrugged. "No idea." Hunter said. "Only that it does, and it's probably what's responsible for the rift between the real and digital worlds."

"I guess this isn't something that's going to go away on its own, is it?" Riley sighed.

Amria shook her head. "Nope. Wish it was. On the upside, there's been Shards plopped down all over the world, to seek out Gaians and hopefully help solve the Animated problem on both ends. Who knows, with more heads working on this, we may find a solution that much faster."

"Provided they don't think you're cosplayers who're high on bath salts or something," Kira said, pulling herself into a less-sprawled, semi-sitting position. "They'll probably call the cops and tell them to bring the guys in white coats."

Riley put a hand to her ear, her pinky and thumb sticking out to imitate a telephone receiver. "Hello, 9-1-1? Yes, I'm being attacked by my toaster and a pissed-off microwave, could you send some cops? Oh, and make sure they're armed with these magical rings, bullets won't work on angry appliances."

The others snorted out laughs, including the three Shards. "Hopefully that won't happen." Hunter said. "Like Amria said, we're looking for Gaian's who're familiar with zOMG and willing to accept the possibility that this is all real."

"Cross fingers…." Marcia frowned as Rosalyn shifted again, the witch biting her lower lip. "Roz, something wrong?"

"Don't call me that," Rosalyn replied, crossing her arms. She glanced to the kitchen window before letting out a breath and standing. "Is…it possible to use Null Energy for a spell?"

Hunter sucked in a breath through his teeth, and Amria stiffened. "Technically…but then there's the issue you run into when you're not using Rings, or some other device. Mage staffs tend to be more than just a magical focus or and excuse to look cool. Which, admittedly, they _do_ look pretty badass."

Rosalyn nodded. "Right…but theoretically, it's possible?"

"Yeah, just not a good idea."

"And you said that the Animated were cropping up due to some sort of hole or rip or whatever in reality, right?"

"Yeah."

It took a moment for it to process, but when it did Macia facepalmed. Behind her, Kira groaned and asked, "Roz… _what did you do?_ "

"Why're you assuming it was me?!"

"Because you don't always think things through before you _do_ them."

Rosalyn gave her a dirty look. "Just come on…and promise _not_ to scream when you see what I mean." She nodded to the back door. "C'mon…it's in the backyard."

The girl let the group out into the aforementioned backyard, Kira grumbling something about having more bruises in more places than should be humanly possible behind Marcia. When they saw the grass, Marcia could see why Rosalyn was looking so uncomfortable.

Sitting there, smack in the middle of the backyard, was a burned-away patch of ground, surrounded by turned-purple grass. And the bare patch was still smoking.

Hunter groaned. Sahara facepalmed. Laurenciel made a sound that reminded Marcia of a dying frog. Amria pinched her nose and moaned, "Oh my god."

Admittedly, Marcia didn't know much about magic, but even _she_ could tell that a smoking hole in the middle of a ring of purple grass was _not_ a good thing. She refrained from pointing this out to the others, as their expressions showed their thoughts clearly enough. Beside her, Kira gave Rosalyn an incredulous look.

"Roz…what the _bloody hell did you DO?!_ "


End file.
